EDITORIAL: Give Obamacare a chance to work

Sep. 22, 2013

That simple statement is worth repeating because many Americans find themselves confused about the health care law and how it will affect them. A tracking poll by the respected Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation found that 31 percent are unsure whether it remains a law or not; 5 percent believe it has been overturned by the Supreme Court, and 8 percent believe it has been repealed.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was passed by the 111th Congress in 2010; it was signed in to law by President Obama, and it was upheld by the Supreme Court. It has withstood 41 votes by the House of Representatives to repeal or defund the law. More such efforts are bound to come as Republicans are making Obamacare a bargaining chip in the upcoming negotiations over raising the debt ceiling.

Meanwhile, provisions of the law continue to be rolled out according to a timetable that lasts through 2022.

Oct. 1 will mark a significant milestone in its phase-in. That’s when the health insurance exchanges, online sites where you can shop for health insurance plans, become available.

Myths, misunderstandings and outright deceptions still abound about the health care law. So it’s no wonder more that half the public (51 percent) says they don’t have enough information about the law to understand how it will affect them and their families, according to the Kaiser poll.

Congress should stop trying to block this law that it passed, and instead allow it to work and get on board with educating the public about it. Because the goals it sets out to achieve are worthy. Namely:

• More people will be covered by health insurance, giving those who are uninsured now better, affordable access to regular health care. That should keep them healthier and reduce the overall costs of care.

A report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that the percentage of adults under age 65 without health insurance would decline by 28 million, from 18.6 to 8.3 percent. It also found that the cost of care provided to the uninsured, which now largely goes uncompensated but is spread to other payers, would drop by 61 percent, from $69.6 billion to $27.3 billion.

• Insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage to those who are already suffer from illness or disease. Beginning in January, all health insurers will have to sell coverage to everyone who applies, no matter their medical history or health status. Insurers will not be allowed to charge more to people with pre-existing conditions.

Protections for children with pre-existing conditions have already taken effect.

These new rules on pre-existing conditions simply put basic human decency into law. People who already have cancer, heart disease or other ailments are the ones who most need protection from the incredibly high cost of health care. Families can be bankrupted by health care costs they are forced to pay out of pocket without insurance.

• Preventive health care will be more widely available. Prevention keeps people healthy and can catch problems earlier, resulting in more manageable costs to treat the problems. Since July 2010, any new health plans offered by employers or insurers have had to provide coverage for a range of preventive care, including services such as immunizations and mammograms.

Despite these benefits, opponents of the law have continued to misrepresent it. Some of these myths are bound to resurface in the coming weeks as the effort to defund or repeal the law get more serious:

• The law is not a government takeover of health care. Health care is already highly regulated at the state and federal levels. What the federal government is doing is creating an online marketplace where consumers can shop for private health care insurance.

• The Affordable Care Act is not a “job killer.” This has been oft-repeated refrain from opponents. Some have speculated that people who are now working primarily to receive health insurance would leave the workforce when they can buy insurance on the exchanges. But it’s doubtful that someone gainfully employed will give up a job.

Businesses that don’t offer health insurance to their workers will have to pay a penalty. However, small businesses with fewer than 50 employees are exempt from the penalties faced by larger employers. The penalties for larger employers do not go into effect until 2015, a year later than originally scheduled.

• You will not need to change plans, doctors or hospitals. If you currently have health coverage through an employer, that most likely will not change. The consulting firm Towers Watson recently released a survey in which 98 percent of employers reported they will keep their active medical plans for 2014 and 2015.

In Massachusetts, the state that the federal plan was modeled from, employer-sponsored coverage rose rather than fell, according to a new report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

It will take years for the federal health care law to be fully implemented and for results to be evident.

With its worthy goals of covering the uninsured, emphasizing prevention and controlling costs, the law deserves a chance to work. ■